Partner Guide - Consul NIA, Terraform, and Zscaler

12min
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Consul
Terraform

Migrating to the cloud enables organizations to scale their applications and increase velocity. However, the increased velocity may come at the cost of greater management complexity and a higher volume of manual tasks. The complexity of managing the security policies and compliance for applications in the cloud is exacerbated when security teams use manual processes for change management. This complexity may lead to delays in implementation and operations, as well as security risks.

HashiCorp and Zscaler collaborated on a strategy to address this challenge using Consul-Terraform-Sync (CTS) for network infrastructure automation (NIA). This works by triggering a Terraform workflow that automatically updates Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) and Zscaler Internet Access resources based on changes it detects from the Consul catalog.

In this tutorial, you will automatically configure a ZPA application segment resource using Consul-Terraform-Sync (CTS). You can use the workflow presented as a blueprint to get familiar with the pattern and accelerate your own networking infrastructure management.

Prerequisites

To complete this tutorial, you need the following components as well as previous experience with Zscaler Private Access (ZPA).

Terraform >= 1.0.0
Consul-Terraform-Sync >= 0.7.0
A Zscaler Private Access tenant.
Zscaler Private Access API Credentials. Terraform and CTS will use these credentials to authenticate with ZPA cloud to create and manage your resources.

Clone example repository

First, clone the repository.

$ git clone https://github.com/zscaler/zpa-terraform-consul-webinar

Next, navigate to the repository's root folder.

$ cd zpa-terraform-consul-webinar

The terraform directory provisions the underlying infrastructure required for this tutorial and has two sub-directories:

base_ac contains a dedicated example used to call each module to setup the environment on both AWS and Zscaler Private Access cloud.
modules contains dedicated modules to support the overall deployment of both AWS and ZPA constructs.
- terraform-zpa-app-connector-group deploys a dedicated ZPA App Connector Group.
- terraform-zpa-provisioning-key deploys a dedicated ZPA Provisioning key associated with the terraform-zpa-app-connector-group module.
- terraform-zpa-server-group deploys a dedicated ZPA Server Group.
- terraform-zsac-acvm-aws deploys a App Connector and AWS EC2 Instance.
- terraform-zsac-asg-web-aws deploys a AWS Auto-Scaling Group, which will deploy the NGIX web servers.
- terraform-zsac-consul-server deploys a dedicated consul and optionally a Vault server.
- terraform-zsac-iam-aws creates an IAM role required for the Zscaler App Connectors, Consul Server and ASG.
- terraform-zsac-network-aws deploys a dedicated network to support the consul-terraform-sync deployment.
- terraform-zsac-sg-aws deploys the required security groups to allow proper connectivity.

Set up AWS credentials

The demo code deploys a Consul datacenter on AWS and the ZPA App Connector instances.

First, configure AWS credentials for your environment so that Terraform can authenticate with AWS to create resources.

Set your AWS access key ID as an environment variable.

$ export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=""

Now, set your secret key.

$ export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=""

If you have temporary AWS credentials, you must also add your AWS_SESSION_TOKEN as an environment variable.

Note

If you don't have access to IAM user credentials, refer to the AWS provider documentation to learn how to use another authentication method.

Set up Zscaler private access credentials

Since the Terraform module uses the Zscaler Private Access Terraform provider to set up the pre-requisites in the ZPA Cloud, you must set the ZPA API Key credentials using environment variables.

First, set your ZPA client ID.

$ export ZPA_CLIENT_ID=""

Then, set your ZPA client secret.

$ export ZPA_CLIENT_SECRET=""

Finally, set your ZPA customer ID.

$ export ZPA_CUSTOMER_ID=""

For more details about how to create the ZPA API Key credentials, refer to the ZPA Terraform provider documentation.

Provision Infrastructure

The Terraform configuration for deploying the Consul datacenter is located under the terraform/base_ac folder.

Navigate to the terraform/base_ac folder.

$ cd terraform/base_ac

Use the terraform.tfvars.example template file to create a terraform.tfvars.

$ cp terraform.tfvars.example terraform.tfvars

Edit the file to customize the attributes based on your desired values. Once you have configured this file to your environment, you can deploy the infrastructure with Terraform.

First, initialize your Terraform directory.

$ terraform init

Then, apply the changes to provision the base infrastructure. Enter yes to confirm the run.

This may take several minutes to complete. Once Terraform completes, it will return something similar to the following. This output displays the information that you can use to access your infrastructure.

$ terraform apply## ...Apply complete! Resources: 55 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.Outputs:1) SSH to the Consul Serverssh -i zsdemo-key-ozsjit6n.pem ubuntu@ec2-52-41-0-77.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com2) HTTP Access to Consul Server UI"http://ec2-52-41-0-77.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com:8500"3) HTTP Access to Vault Server UI"http://ec2-52-41-0-77.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com:8200"4) Vault Server Public IP (Configure in CTS)export VAULT_ADDR="http://ec2-52-41-0-77.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com:8200"5) Vault Server Internal IP (Configure in CTS)export VAULT_ADDR="http://10.0.101.210:8200"6) Executing Consul-Terraform-Sync (CTS Automation)cd ../../zpa_nia/example/consul-terraform-sync start -config-file config.hcl7) KMS ID Outputmrk-80709f525e7942f1bc5ef9ba2f8312da8) ZPA Objects Created for Use with CTS ModuleZPA App Connector Group Name (Used in CTS Module)us-west-2-vpc-05990a57fd9219307ZPA Server Group Name (Used in CTS Module)us-west-2-vpc-05990a57fd9219307ZPA Segment Group Name (Used in CTS Module)us-west-2-vpc-05990a57fd92193079) SSH to the App Connectorssh -i zsdemo-key-ozsjit6n.pem ec2-user@10.0.200.211

Verify access to private web servers

Conceptually, all web servers are hosted behind the Zscaler Private Access infrastructure and not accessible to the outside world. For this reason, you need to be connected to the Zscaler cloud using the Zscaler Client Connector agent.

Connect to the Zscaler infrastructure using the Zscaler Client Connector Agent.

ZCC Agent

Once you have connected to the client connector agent, access one of the web servers provisioned as part of the autoscaling group.

NGINX Portal

Verify Consul services

Open the Consul UI by opening the address specified in output 2) HTTP Access to Consul Server UI in your browser. Then, verify that your Consul datacenter contains 2 instances of the Web NGINX services.

ConsulUI

Configure Vault (optional)

The Terraform module also deploys Vault to store the Zscaler Private Access API credentials. Expand the dropdown to initialize Vault. You only need to do this if you want to use Vault to store the Zscaler credentials instead of environment variables.

Authenticate with Vault

In addition to deploying the base infrastructure, the tutorial Terraform module also auto-initialize Vault and auto-unseal. For this reason, you do not need to manually initialize Vault.

Note

The Vault configuration in this tutorial leverages AWS Auto-Unseal option. As a result, when you created the base configuration, Terraform created an AWS KMS.

Retrieve the Terraform output to retrieve the SSH information. You should find something similar to the following.

$ terraform output## ...2) SSH to Consul/Vault Serverssh -i zsdemo-key-ozsjit6n.pem ubuntu@ec2-52-41-0-77.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com## ...

Run the command in your terminal to connect to your Consul/Vault server. This command will be unique to your Terraform output.

$ ssh -i zsdemo-key-ozsjit6n.pem ubuntu@ec2-52-41-0-77.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com

In the Vault instance, retrieve the Vault recovery keys and the initial root token.

$ sudo cat /home/ubuntu/vault_tokens.logRecovery Key 1: jKg7iLtS2lDvnJiK5ThE/Sl9A9RwfIfkjTt9QvupJR7eRecovery Key 2: AuuSA5zGNjXTXHXbPJLPSfTgSQJDpARrOxXW9MdzCJ0yRecovery Key 3: dhW8ypggqluVx9iZ+2Zi4xbqaYkLAgbpNLxFg64sb1/RRecovery Key 4: YDrA3JCebNs1jRf3tzHHPXd9u58TZX+uoNB8JD+prV4ERecovery Key 5: g4FOj68I6f0Ih8WopEzL3QMlbBzca0cH85WrGCsrhHfiInitial Root Token: hvs.dZg9EGZYhO4UYC7Vk1GAAy3VSuccess! Vault is initializedRecovery key initialized with 5 key shares and a key threshold of 3. Please securely distribute the key shares printed above.

If Terraform deployed the Consul datacenter successfully, you should find the Vault as a registered service within the Consul UI.

In your terminal, set the Vault token and address environment variables so that Terraform can authenticate to the Vault server to create your credentials.

First, set the Vault token environment variable and set it to the root Vault token from the previous command.

$ export VAULT_TOKEN=""

Then, set the Vault address environment variable and set it to the Vault address from the Terraform output.

$ export VAULT_ADDR=""

Navigate to the Vault directory.

$ cd zpa-terraform-consul-webinar/vault

Open zpa-terraform-consul-webinar/vault/main.tf.

Replace all REPLACE_ME in the vault_kv_secret_v2.zpacloudprod resource with your respective Zscaler credentials. This will store the credentials in Vault. You only need to update the client_id, client_secret, and customer_id attributes.

resource "vault_kv_secret_v2" "zpacloudprod" {  mount = vault_mount.zscaler.path  name = "zpacloudprod"  delete_all_versions = true  data_json = jsonencode(  {    client_id ="REPLACE_ME",    client_secret = "REPLACE_ME",    customer_id = "REPLACE_ME"  }  )}

Initialize and apply the Terraform configuration to mount Vault and create a KV secret.

$ terraform init && terraform apply –-auto-approve## ...Plan: 2 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.vault_mount.zscaler: Creating...vault_mount.zscaler: Creation complete after 0s [id=zscaler]vault_kv_secret_v2.zpacloudprod: Creation complete after 0s [id=zscaler/data/zpacloudprod]Apply complete! Resources: 2 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.

Configure CTS

Once you have deployed the base infrastructure, you can use Consul-Terraform-Sync (CTS) to monitor the Consul catalog for changes in your web server instances and modify your ZPA Application Segment configuration reducing the manual tasks the ZPA administrator needs to perform.

First, navigate to the zpa_nia/example directory.

$ cd ../../zpa_nia/example

Then, configure CTS.

Note

If you deployed the infrastructure using the Terraform module, the module automatically creates the configuration file (config.hcl) in the zpa_nia/example folder. The following is an example configuration file generated by the Terraform module.

driver "terraform" {  log = true  required_providers {    zpa = {      source = "zscaler/zpa"    }  }}# Consul Config Optionsconsul {  address = "52.41.0.77:8500"}# Vault Config Options (Optional)# Only required if you are using Vault to retrieve ZPA API Credentialsvault {}################################################################################# For Customer utilizing Vault to Store ZPA API Credentials, enable this field################################################################################terraform_provider "zpa" {  zpa_client_id = "{{ with secret \"zscaler/zpacloudprod\" }}{{ .Data.data.client_id }}{{ end }}"  zpa_client_secret = "{{ with secret \"zscaler/zpacloudprod\" }}{{ .Data.data.client_secret }}{{ end }}"  zpa_customer_id = "{{ with secret \"zscaler/zpacloudprod\" }}{{ .Data.data.customer_id }}{{ end }}"}/*terraform_provider "zpa" {  zpa_client_id       = "{{ env \"ZPA_CLIENT_ID\" }}"  zpa_client_secret   = "{{ env \"ZPA_CLIENT_SECRET\" }}"  zpa_customer_id     = "{{ env \"ZPA_CUSTOMER_ID\" }}"}*/task {  name = "zpa_application_segment"  description = "This task dynamically updates application segments domain names, tcp ports"  module = "../"  providers = ["zpa"]  condition "services" {    names = ["web"]  }  variable_files = ["./terraform.tfvars"]}

Before you start the consul-terraform-sync daemon, authenticate with the ZPA API credentials using environment variables or Vault so that CTS can authenticate properly.

If you deployed this tutorial using the Terraform module provided in this GitHub Repository, by default, the scenario uses Vault to store the Zscaler Private Access API credentials.

# Vault Config Options (Optional)# Only required if you are using Vault to retrieve ZPA API Credentialsvault {}################################################################################# For Customer utilizing Vault to Store ZPA API Credentials, enable this field################################################################################terraform_provider "zpa" {  zpa_client_id = "{{ with secret \"zscaler/zpacloudprod\" }}{{ .Data.data.client_id }}{{ end }}"  zpa_client_secret = "{{ with secret \"zscaler/zpacloudprod\" }}{{ .Data.data.client_secret }}{{ end }}"  zpa_customer_id = "{{ with secret \"zscaler/zpacloudprod\" }}{{ .Data.data.customer_id }}{{ end }}"}

If you deployed this tutorial using the Terraform module provided in this GitHub Repository, by default, the scenario uses Vault to store the Zscaler Private Access API credentials.

In zpa_nia/example/config.hcl, comment out the ZPA Terraform provider configuration that uses Vault, and uncomment the one that uses environment variables.

terraform_provider "zpa" {  zpa_client_id       = "{{ env \"ZPA_CLIENT_ID\" }}"  zpa_client_secret   = "{{ env \"ZPA_CLIENT_SECRET\" }}"  zpa_customer_id     = "{{ env \"ZPA_CUSTOMER_ID\" }}"}

You still need to set your credentials using environment variables.

For details about the authentication methods supported by the ZPA Terraform Provider, visit the provider documentation in the Terraform Registry.

Start CTS

Finally, start CTS.

$ consul-terraform-sync start -config-file config.hcl[INFO]  cli: v0.7.0 (e77f257)[INFO]  ctrl: setting up controller: type=daemon[INFO]  ctrl: initializing Consul client and testing connection[INFO]  driver.terraform: skipping install, terraform already exists: tf_version=1.1.8 install_path=/Users/username/Desktop/zpa-terraform-consul-webinar/zpa_nia/example[INFO]  cli: initializing controller[INFO]  ctrl: initializing driver factory[INFO]  template.hcltmpl: evaluating dynamic configuration for block: block_name=zpa[INFO]  api: starting server: port=8558[INFO]  ctrl: executing all tasks once through[INFO]  ctrl: running task once: task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO]  client.terraformcli: Terraform logging is set, Terraform logs will output with Consul-Terraform-Sync logs[INFO]  driver.terraform: retrieved 0 Terraform handlers for task: task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO]  templates.tftmpl: overwriting file in root module for task: file_name=variables.tf task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO]  templates.tftmpl: overwriting file in root module for task: file_name=variables.module.tf task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO]  templates.tftmpl: overwriting file in root module for task: file_name=terraform.tfvars.tmpl task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO]  templates.tftmpl: overwriting file in root module for task: file_name=providers.auto.tfvars task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO]  templates.tftmpl: overwriting file in root module for task: file_name=variables.auto.tfvars task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO]  templates.tftmpl: overwriting file in root module for task: file_name=main.tf task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO] running Terraform command: /Users/username/Desktop/zpa-terraform-consul-webinar/zpa_nia/example/terraform version -json{  "terraform_version": "1.1.8",  "platform": "darwin_amd64",  "provider_selections": {    "registry.terraform.io/zscaler/zpa": "2.7.0"  },  "terraform_outdated": true}

The CTS execution will automatically create a new application segment within the Zscaler Private Access portal, containing the FQDNs of each one of the web servers with its corresponding service ports.

ZPAUI

Verify NIA automation workflow

This scenario will trigger CTS by increasing the number of servers allocated to the autoscaling group. CTS will update the ZPA application segment configuration to include the new NGINX instances created by increasing the autoscaling group capacity.

In /terraform/base_ac, open the terraform.tfvars file and update the desired capacity and max_size values for the autoscaling group variables from 2 to 4. The following snippet shows the original autoscaling group variables.

## 7. The minimum number of Web Servers to maintain in an Autoscaling group. (Default: 2)desired_capacity                           = 2min_size                                   = 1max_size                                   = 2

Apply the changes to increase the number of servers in your autoscaling group.

$ terraform apply --auto-approve## ...An execution plan has been generated and is shown below.Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:  ~ update in-placeTerraform will perform the following actions:  # aws_autoscaling_group.web_asg will be updated in-place  ~ resource "aws_autoscaling_group" "web_asg" {    ## ...      ~ desired_capacity          = 2 -> 4        id                        = "zsdemo-web-asg-47d6j97s"      ~ max_size                  = 2 -> 4        name                      = "zsdemo-web-asg-47d6j97s"    ## ...    }Plan: 3 to add, 3 to change, 0 to destroy.## ...Apply complete! Resources: 3 added, 1 changed, 0 destroyed.

Once the changes are applied on AWS, Consul will show the new instances on the Services tab.

CTS will detect the change from the Consul catalog and update the application segments to reflect the new web services.

[INFO]  cli: v0.7.0 (e77f257)[INFO]  ctrl: setting up controller: type=daemon[INFO]  ctrl: initializing Consul client and testing connection[INFO]  driver.terraform: skipping install, terraform already exists: tf_version=1.1.8 install_path=/Users/username/go/src/github.com/zscaler/hashicorp-consul/consul-terraform-sync/zpa-terraform-consul-webinar/zpa_nia/example[INFO]  cli: initializing controller[INFO]  ctrl: initializing driver factory[INFO]  template.hcltmpl: evaluating dynamic configuration for block: block_name=zpa[INFO]  api: starting server: port=8558[INFO]  ctrl: executing all tasks once through[INFO]  ctrl: running task once: task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO]  client.terraformcli: Terraform logging is set, Terraform logs will output with Consul-Terraform-Sync logs[INFO]  driver.terraform: retrieved 0 Terraform handlers for task: task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO]  templates.tftmpl: overwriting file in root module for task: file_name=variables.auto.tfvars task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO]  templates.tftmpl: overwriting file in root module for task: file_name=variables.tf task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO]  templates.tftmpl: overwriting file in root module for task: file_name=variables.module.tf task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO]  templates.tftmpl: overwriting file in root module for task: file_name=main.tf task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO]  templates.tftmpl: overwriting file in root module for task: file_name=providers.auto.tfvars task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO]  templates.tftmpl: overwriting file in root module for task: file_name=terraform.tfvars.tmpl task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO] running Terraform command: /Users/username/go/src/github.com/zscaler/hashicorp-consul/consul-terraform-sync/zpa-terraform-consul-webinar/zpa_nia/example/terraform version -json{  "terraform_version": "1.1.8",  "platform": "darwin_amd64",  "provider_selections": {    "registry.terraform.io/zscaler/zpa": "2.7.0"  },  "terraform_outdated": true}2023/03/28 21:17:05 [INFO] running Terraform command: /Users/username/go/src/github.com/zscaler/hashicorp-consul/consul-terraform-sync/zpa-terraform-consul-webinar/zpa_nia/example/terraform init -no-color -force-copy -input=false -backend=true -get=true -upgrade=falseInitializing modules...Initializing the backend...Initializing provider plugins...- Reusing previous version of zscaler/zpa from the dependency lock file- Using previously-installed zscaler/zpa v2.7.0Terraform has been successfully initialized![INFO] running Terraform command: /Users/username/go/src/github.com/zscaler/hashicorp-consul/consul-terraform-sync/zpa-terraform-consul-webinar/zpa_nia/example/terraform workspace new -no-color zpa_application_segmentWorkspace "zpa_application_segment" already exists[INFO] running Terraform command: /Users/username/go/src/github.com/zscaler/hashicorp-consul/consul-terraform-sync/zpa-terraform-consul-webinar/zpa_nia/example/terraform workspace select -no-color zpa_application_segment[INFO] running Terraform command: /Users/username/go/src/github.com/zscaler/hashicorp-consul/consul-terraform-sync/zpa-terraform-consul-webinar/zpa_nia/example/terraform validate -no-color -json{  "format_version": "1.0",  "valid": true,  "error_count": 0,  "warning_count": 0,  "diagnostics": []}2023/03/28 21:17:07 [INFO] running Terraform command: /Users/username/go/src/github.com/zscaler/hashicorp-consul/consul-terraform-sync/zpa-terraform-consul-webinar/zpa_nia/example/terraform apply -no-color -auto-approve -input=false -lock=true -parallelism=10 -refresh=truemodule.zpa_application_segment.zpa_application_segment.this["web"]: Refreshing state... [id=216196257331327661]Terraform used the selected providers to generate the following executionplan. Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:  ~ update in-placeTerraform will perform the following actions:  # module.zpa_application_segment.zpa_application_segment.this["web"] will be updated in-place  ~ resource "zpa_application_segment" "this" {      ~ domain_names                  = [          + "ip-10-0-200-212.us-west-2.compute.internal",          + "ip-10-0-200-62.us-west-2.compute.internal",        ]        id                            = "216196257331327661"        name                          = "web"    }Plan: 0 to add, 1 to change, 0 to destroy.module.zpa_application_segment.zpa_application_segment.this["web"]: Modifying... [id=216196257331327661]module.zpa_application_segment.zpa_application_segment.this["web"]: Modifications complete after 2s [id=216196257331327661]Apply complete! Resources: 0 added, 1 changed, 0 destroyed.[INFO]  ctrl: task completed: task_name=zpa_application_segment[INFO]  ctrl: all tasks completed once[INFO]  ctrl: start task monitoring

Verify Zscaler resources

Once all the components are deployed and connectivity is fully established, you can test access to the backend applications by connecting to the Zscaler infrastructure using the Zscaler Client Connector Agent.

ZCC Agent

The NGINX servers are already in an auto scaling group with Consul agents running and sending all information to Consul. When you destroy or create a NGINX server in the auto-scaling group, Consul will automatically deregister the removed servers, and trigger a call to Consul-Terraform-Sync, which in turn will update the ZPA Application Segment domain entries by removing the servers. Access the NGINX web server and verify traffic is being balanced across four instances.

Updated NGINX Portal

Clean your environment

Once you have completed the tutorial, you can clean up your environment by stopping CTS and using Terraform to destroy all tutorial-related infrastructure.

Stop CTS

You can stop CTS by:

Entering CTRL+C in the shell running the daemon, or
Sending the SIGINT signal to the process.

Before stopping, the daemon will log the requested shutdown.

[INFO]  cli: signal received to initiate graceful shutdown: signal=interrupt[INFO]  tasksmanager: stop monitoring tasks[INFO]  tasksmanager: stopping dependency monitoring[INFO]  api: shutdown api server[INFO]  cli: graceful shutdown

Destroy resources

If you used the Vault instance, navigate to the Terraform configuration for Vault.

$ cd ../zpa-terraform-consul-webinar/vault

Then, destroy the resources associated with Vault. This should destroy 2 resources.

$ terraform destroy -auto-approve

Then, navigate to the directory that contains the Terraform configuration for your base infrastructure.

$ cd ../terraform/base_ac

Then, destroy the resources. This should destroy approximately 56 resources.

$ terraform destroy -auto-approve

Optionally, clean the Git repository to remove files created during the tutorial.

$ git clean -xdf

Next steps

In this tutorial, you learned how to automate the configuration of your Zscaler Private Access tenant using CTS to create and update application segment resources.

Review the CTS tutorial to learn how to secure the CTS instance and other best practices to integrate it into a production environment.

To learn even more about CTS and Zscaler, check out the following resources:

Upgrade federated datacenters

Load balancing with NGINX Plus